Microsoft To Train And Certify People On AI Skills

Software giant Microsoft has collaborated with education provider General Assembly (GA) for training and certifying 15,000 workers on artificial intelligence (AI) skills by the year 2022.

The training will be related to technologies such as machine learning (ML), data science, data engineering and cloud.

Microsoft, in a blog post on Friday, said, “As per World Economic Forum (WEF), around 133 million new roles could be generated by the year 2022. In order to address this challenge, Microsoft along with GA will power the transition of 2,000 jobs for workers into the AI and ML roles in first year and will train another 13,000 workers with skills related to AI across sectors in the next three years.”

For creating consistent standards for AI skills, the software major will become founding member of the AI Standards Board of GA, which will be later joined by other leading organisations which are at the forefront of AI disruption.

Aims to meet AI talent needs

In the coming six months, the AI Standards Board will outline skills standards, develop a career framework, create assessments and build an industry-recognised credential for the AI skills, according to the post.

As part of the collaboration, Microsoft and GA will jointly set up an AI Talent Network to source candidates for project-based work and hiring, to meet the ever-growing AI talent requirements of businesses. GA will utilise its network of 22 campuses and the wider Adecco ecosystem to develop a repeatable pipeline of talent for the AI Talent Network.

Jean-Philippe Courtois, Executive Vice President and President of Global Sales, Marketing and Operations at Microsoft, said, “We are thrilled to combine our industry and technical expertise with GA to help close the skills gap and ensure businesses can maximise their potential in our AI-driven economy.”